Review: Goodbye, Emmanuelle

Set in the Seychelles, Emmanuelle (Sylvia Kristel, stunning but back to short hair, unfortunately) seems bored with the carefree sex her open marriage to husband Jean (Umberto Orsini) affords her. In fact, she spends most of the damn film pursuing a seemingly disinterested documentary filmmaker (Jean-Pierre Bouvier). Could it finally be over between Emmanuelle and Jean? Not if the increasingly jealous Jean has anything to say about it.

 

After hitting the heights of the softcore genre with the previous film, the “Emmanuelle” series completely bottoms out with this dreadfully dull, ill-conceived serious entry from director François Leterrier (mostly coming from a TV background) and co-writer Monique Lange. There is absolutely no fun to be had in this dreary affair which not only tones down the sex considerably (every scene had potential but looks heavily cut- which turns out not to be the case. This is the film as it was designed to be), but also ruins Emmanuelle as a character. It turns the title character into a cold, distant shell of her former self who eventually tires of the hedonistic lifestyle she and her husband have been partaking in for years. Who the hell thought this was the appropriate direction for a softcore film series? Let’s just remember it was co-written by a woman, OK?

Even moreso than before, the husband’s jealousy makes zero sense. He was much less jealous in the second film, really and a total dickface in this one. But it’s really Emmanuelle’s constant foul mood that sinks this one. She’s a total buzzkill and the film wouldn’t be any good no matter how much sex was in it this time because of that fact. The lovely Seychelles scenery as captured by cinematographer Jean Badal is the only bright spot.

 

I just didn’t get this film at all. Who wants to see a softcore porn film about a jealous husband and a now-frigid wife? Add to that some appallingly tame and unsexy sex scenes and you have a major miscalculation. The title song by Serge Gainsbourg is absolutely awful French pop crap, too.

 

Not much sex, too much walking around and looking at scenery, and focusing on two pretentious, self-absorbed dicks, one of whom is in a seriously foul mood. Skip this one and move onto “Emmanuelle 4”, or better yet, just watch “Emmanuelle II” again. 

 

Rating: D+